Language, please!

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  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,663
    Reiki should be regulated. You wouldn't want to not touch someone in the wrong place.
  • briantrumpet
    briantrumpet Posts: 18,066
    masjer said:

    Why are there so many names for groups of animals? Flock, herd, shoal, swarm should cover most, but some have four different names.
    A fever of stingrays. A stench of skunks. A pandemonium of parrots. A labour of moles. An obstinacy of buffalo. A shrewdness of apes, but a band of gorillas, a community of chimpanzees and a buffoonery of orangutans. A bloat of hippopotamuses. A tower of giraffes. A smack, swarm or bloom of jellyfish. The list goes on.
    It seems a bit pointless, but maybe good for pub quizzes


    My hunch is that there were some curious ones, historically, then loads of other people have just invented a pile of other silly ones much more recently. They are so pointless I can't even be bothered to look them up in the OED (and I don't do pub quizzes).
    https://www.facebook.com/unanglaisendiois
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,691
    Wasn't it bored Victorians?
  • briantrumpet
    briantrumpet Posts: 18,066
    TheBigBean said:

    Wasn't it bored Victorians?


    That does sound like the rubbish they'd come up with, like the new spellings 'tyre' and 'kerb', when 'tire' and 'curb' had been working perfectly well. Too many rich people not doing a proper day's work, with time on their hands.
    https://www.facebook.com/unanglaisendiois
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,663
    "Deplane."

    Is this word really doubleplusgooder than "disembark" or is it just unharder to spell?
  • briantrumpet
    briantrumpet Posts: 18,066
    First.Aspect said:

    "Deplane."

    Is this word really doubleplusgooder than "disembark" or is it just unharder to spell?


    Ditto 'detrain'. Not to my taste.
    https://www.facebook.com/unanglaisendiois
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,663
    Does one deboat, depickup or dehelecopter, I wonder.
  • masjer
    masjer Posts: 2,578
    edited February 2022
    Degas. That word has tarnished Edgar Degas's work.
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,663
    masjer said:

    Degas. That word has tarnished Edgar Degas' work.

    Degas is a viable scientific term which in context encapsulates a well understood procedure in a single word. I am in favour of specific language of that type.
  • masjer
    masjer Posts: 2,578
    First.Aspect said:

    masjer said:

    Degas. That word has tarnished Edgar Degas' work.

    Degas is a viable scientific term which in context encapsulates a well understood procedure in a single word. I am in favour of specific language of that type.
    You need to vent. It was a joke.
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,663
    masjer said:

    First.Aspect said:

    masjer said:

    Degas. That word has tarnished Edgar Degas' work.

    Degas is a viable scientific term which in context encapsulates a well understood procedure in a single word. I am in favour of specific language of that type.
    You need to vent. It was a joke.
    I see what you did there.
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 26,324
    Deplane has been a valid word since at least the 70s. Who can forget it being used on fantasy Island?
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 27,765
    First.Aspect said:

    Does one deboat, depickup or dehelecopter, I wonder.

    I mean a bark, or barque is a type of boat so it should be 'disemplane' or 'disentrain'.
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • masjer
    masjer Posts: 2,578
    Axe, ax, aks or ask?
    Aks seems to be gaining in popularity.
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,663
    masjer said:

    Axe, ax, aks or ask?
    Aks seems to be gaining in popularity.

    There are problable a multitude of, ahem, regional ones like this.

    In Scotland, rather than "I'm not" certain people say, "I amn't".
  • masjer
    masjer Posts: 2,578
    First.Aspect said:

    masjer said:

    Axe, ax, aks or ask?
    Aks seems to be gaining in popularity.

    There are problable a multitude of, ahem, regional ones like this.

    In Scotland, rather than "I'm not" certain people say, "I amn't".
    Well done, you tiptoed through the minefield and made it safely to the other side.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,751
    masjer said:

    Degas. That word has tarnished Edgar Degas's work.

    I like to degas, others are less keen.
  • masjer
    masjer Posts: 2,578
    A Degas- Woman degassing.

  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 27,765
    edited February 2022


    All derived from castrum, the Latin word for a fort.
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • laurentian
    laurentian Posts: 2,394
    First.Aspect said:

    "Deplane."

    Is this word really doubleplusgooder than "disembark" or is it just unharder to spell?

    This is right up there with "we will be landing momentarily" - one would hope the plane would be landing in a moment for a significant period of time. . .
    Wilier Izoard XP
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,821
    "alight for" x says no-one ever apart from tube and train announcers.
    _
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,691
    rick_chasey said:

    "alight for" x says no-one ever apart from tube and train announcers.

    Good word. Much better than "get off" and "get on".
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,821
    Yeah look it's very good for that use, I just find it's aimed squarely at confusing foreigners.

    It also has vibes for embarking rather than disembarking, which is probably what I would say if I was the announcer wrier.

    "disembark here for" which is certainly clunkier.
    _
  • masjer
    masjer Posts: 2,578
    It's when the announcer says "your train is alight, now alight the carriage" you really have to worry.
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,663
    edited February 2022
    My favourite Simpsons joke was a scientist (school teacher?) saying, "This is safe, the liquid is INflammable."
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,691
    rick_chasey said:

    Yeah look it's very good for that use, I just find it's aimed squarely at confusing foreigners.

    It also has vibes for embarking rather than disembarking, which is probably what I would say if I was the announcer wrier.

    "disembark here for" which is certainly clunkier.

    I first came across the word abroad.
  • masjer
    masjer Posts: 2,578
    First.Aspect said:

    My favourite Simpsons joke was a scientist (school teacher?) saying, "This is safe, the liquid is INflammable."

    In an episode where Homer's house had subsided, a tradesman placed a spirit-level on a beam. The beam was at such a steep angle it slid off. Homer asked "did you see the bubble?"
    I don't know why but I love that.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,691
    Siblings is another word that is used more often now and is useful.

    Probably should have put alight on a different scale.

    image
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 27,765
    Overwhelmed implies the existence of whelmed and whelming, but what would they mean?
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • shirley_basso
    shirley_basso Posts: 6,195
    have you tried using google? It's there...

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